Group chat applications (apps) are becoming increasingly popular as a mechanism for allowing users of networked devices (e.g., smart phones, tablets, computers, etc.) to communicate with one another in essentially real time. Such apps can facilitate text-based conversations in a variety of forms such as chat rooms, message boards, private messages, text messages, etc.
In a typical group chat application, launching the app on a local network device allows the app to communicate with one or more remote servers across a network. Messages from other chat participants on remote client devices are routed through the servers and returned and displayed on a user interface of the local network device. Similarly, messages from the local user are displayed locally as well as routed through the servers for display on the remote client devices. The communications may take place using a web browser or a special API interface associated with the app. The conversation is often arranged as a sequential thread so that new comments from various members of the group are added to the top or the bottom of a listing of previous comments in the conversation.
Some group chat apps can support large numbers of group members at the same time. This capability can advantageously allow many participants to observe and, as desired, contribute to an on-going conversation. However, if too many comments are being added, new comments may appear at a rate that is faster than the members can reasonably track and the conversation may become unwieldy and not useful. This situation can be exasperated if some members post comments that are not at all related to, or only marginally related to, the topic at hand (e.g., spam).